Merkel Defends Aide's Meeting With President of Iran

By JUDY DEMPSEY

Published: February 22, 2011

BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Monday that her foreign minister's decision to meet Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the price to pay for the release of two German journalists.

Mrs. Merkel had been informed about the weekend trip by the minister, Guido Westerwelle, but had not known about the meeting with Mr. Ahmadinejad beforehand, officials said. Her spokesman nevertheless emphasized that Mrs. Merkel was very happy with the results of the trip.

''In that kind of a situation, it is always a question of weighing the pros and cons,'' her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.

He added that the meeting did not mean that Germany had changed its stance on the Iranian regime.

''We are still absolutely clear about the fact that the situation in Iran concerning human rights and political freedoms is unacceptably bad,'' Mr. Seibert said.

The Foreign Ministry, after being questioned by reporters about what Mr. Westerwelle and Mr. Ahmadinejad had spoken about during their hourlong meeting in Tehran on Saturday evening, also said the discussion was limited.

''The minister's trip had nothing but a humanitarian purpose,'' the ministry said in a statement. ''We did what was necessary to resolve the case of our two citizens and get them home to Germany after four months.''

Mr. Westerwelle frequently raised the question of human rights in Iran during the discussion, the ministry said.

Nonetheless, the move has quickly been exploited by the Iranian regime. Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi said Sunday that Mr. Westerwelle's visit ''proved the failure of E.U. policy on Iran.''

Under that policy, set by the European Union in agreement with the member states, foreign ministers are advised to not visit Iran except for very limited reasons. ''The current visit puts an end to such a decision,'' Mr. Qashqavi added.

Leading Iranian exile opposition groups in Europe condemned the visit, saying Germany was bowing to the Tehran regime at a time when the security forces were cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrators.

''This trip is nothing but pinning hope on the bankrupt and utterly failed policy of appeasement,'' the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement Monday. It also said Mr. Westerwelle's visit occurred ''only a few days after the bloody crackdown on Iranian protesters,'' adding, ''It would only embolden the regime to further suppress Iranian people.''

Officials involved in arranging Mr. Westerwelle's visit to Iran said they realized that the foreign minister was walking a diplomatic tightrope.

With Iran isolated by Europe, the United States and other countries because of its nuclear program and its crackdown on the political opposition, they said Mr. Westerwelle's visit was sure to be exploited by the regime.

Mr. Westerwelle had informed the E.U. foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and other diplomats about his visit in advance, stressing that it was a bilateral mission and had nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program, according to the Foreign Ministry.

''We were aware that he was travelling to Iran at the weekend,'' said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for Mrs. Ashton, said Monday. ''He went for a very specific reason. It was on behalf of German citizens.''

Marcus Hellwig, a reporter, and Jens Koch, a photographer, were sent last October by the mass circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag to interview the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who had been sentenced to death by stoning on adultery charges.

They were arrested during the interview because they had entered Iran on tourist visas, not as journalists. In November, they were charged with espionage.

The German Foreign Ministry pushed for their release amid a huge publicity campaign in Germany.

In late December, the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, telephoned Mr. Westerwelle with conditions for the release of the journalists, the Foreign Ministry said.

Iran had demanded an apology from Springer, the company that publishes Bild am Sonntag, and a personal visit by Mr. Westerwelle to Tehran, including a meeting with top officials, according to German diplomats.

German Foreign Ministry officials said that the negotiations continued for several weeks and that last Tuesday Mr. Salehi telephoned Mr. Westerwelle again to say a deal was in the making. It was to involve a handshake and meeting with Mr. Ahmadinejad, who for years has been shunned by Western governments.

The Iranian Students' News Agency reported Saturday that trial hearings had been held for the two journalists and that they had been sentenced to 20-month jail terms. The detainees had been found guilty of acts against Iranian national security, it said.

''They enjoyed Islamic clemency because of their special status and also because of the clarity of being misused to act against national security,'' agency reported.

The journalists were released from their prison in Tabriz, in northern Iran, and ordered to pay fines of 500 million rials, or about $50,000. Their prison sentences were commuted, and the German Foreign Ministry said Springer had paid the fines.